No Asian rush to buy US energy

Asian countries aren’t rushing to buy US energy commodities, even though lifting imports of crude oil, liquefied natural gas and coal will help meet President Donald Trump’s demand for lower trade surpluses.

- Clyde Russell

While rare earths may be the immediate talking point in the current talks between the Trump administration and China, the real action behind any deal will be in the big three energy commodities.

The same is true for other Asian economies seeking to curry favour with Mr Trump and get a better deal than the hefty tariffs imposed on many in his so-called “Liberation Day” measures announced on April 2, and subsequently paused for 90 days. But in the four full months since Mr Trump returned to the White House, Asia's imports of US energy commodities have actually fallen from the same period last year.

Imports of crude oil from February to May declined to 1.53 million barrels per day (bpd) from 1.55 million bpd in the same period in 2024, according to data from commodity analysts Kpler.

Asia's imports of US LNG were 4.78 million metric tonnes in the February to May period, down 40% from the 8.04 million tonnes in the same four months last year.

Arrivals of all grades of coal were 13.79 million tonnes in the four-month period, down from 14.19 million tonnes from February to May last year.